Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing my city’s vice mayor. It was for an event called College Day,* which is going to be taking place all over San Jose, CA and is essentially an event that encourages kids to start thinking about college. This year’s theme is “Education Journey”. Basically, adults are supposed to share the path they took while pursuing an education (all very exciting stuff).

Anyway, I interviewed my vice mayor about her educational journey. There were only five questions, and they were something along the lines of “share a little something about your college experience” or “what was the hardest aspect of going to college?” She was cute and professional and so were her answers. She was incredibly thorough and mentioned funny and relatable things, like how all college students eat only Ramen noodles.

There was one thing she said that especially stood out, however. I had asked her if she had any advice for students who were in college or hoping to get there. She told me that it was incredibly important to take everything in. Learn as much as you can. Of course, I already knew that, but then she said why you need to do all that learning and absorbing. She said that even if you lose everything, if your house burns down in a fire or you go bankrupt because your business partner is bad with money, you will always have your education. No one can take that away. I had never thought of that before. I always knew it was good to soak up all this information I was learning in Astronomy, but only because it was fun. It never even crossed my mind that in thirty years I may be sitting penniless but will still be rich because I know what makes a black hole black.

What I am saying is that when you go to school, even though it is expensive, it is worth it because you be rich from it forever. Take it all in. Be as greedy as you can with your education.

* College Day is not affiliated with UCLA